But usually there are diminishing returns with this sort of
wishful thinking — not so here. In a summer-changing recipe,
chef/wizard April Bloomfield goes all Mike
Teavee on some perfectly good grilled vegetables and every
part comes out better.

Instead of leaving the vegetables in big, striped hunks like normal, she chops them into rough bits
and mixes them into a loose, garlicky vinaigrette. (Don’t worry,
city folk — if you don’t have a grill, you can use a grill pan or your broiler, or even char them
over a gas burner, baba ghanoush-style.)

Here, Bloomfield opts for big slabs of red onion, radicchio, and
fennel, but you could do this with pretty much any combination of
grilled vegetables (or, what the heck, fruit!) that you’ve got —
including those classic planks of zucchini and eggplant. When
you’ve got leftovers of any of the above, this is a good place to
stick them.

But why exactly does she do this? Why not just grill vegetables
and wash dressing over them? Well, there’s the experiential part:
“This is a chunky dressing that makes each bite of a salad taste
different,” she writes. She wants to keep you surprised and
engaged, ever fishing for the next sugary raisin at the
bottom of the bowl of bran.

Likewise, this dressing will turn even plain greens into a
complete, dynamic salad. But this also makes it a great completer
for all sorts of other aimless dishes — a spoonful on steak or
lamb, as she suggests, a shoveling onto crostini, or into
potatoes or pasta or tuna salad.

But what I love most of all is that the vinaigrette
tastes utterly new and familiar at once—like no salad dressing
I’ve had, but smoky and sweet, like barbecues on the patio, like
summer itself. What other happy foods should we infuse into
sauces next? Toast? Kimchi?Oreo pie?

Got a genius recipe to share—from a classic cookbook,
an online source, or anywhere, really? Please send it my way
(and tell me what's so smart about it) at
kristen@food52.com. Thank you to our own Books
Editor & Stylist Ali Slagle for this one.

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